I have recently noticed a huge trend in retro design (okay maybe not THAT recently) and may I say that I am super excited about it. I love retro designs. I like the mixing of type, the color palettes, the ribbons and brackets. Usually my personal design aesthetic is pretty simple but I love to throw some retro design elements in now and again.
Is retro here to stay? Hard to tell since digital design trends shift so rapidly but I do now that right now, retro is taking over design in a big way. As great as the Retro fad is, however, there is a way for it to go horribly wrong. When do you stop throwing ribbons at a site? (Probably right before the point you start throwing them instead of placing them with design purpose) When do you know when you’ve gone too far with typefaces? (Probably when you’ve reach 10 different fonts on a single page and it’s beginning to resemble a crazy sweater) Is there a difference between Retro and Vintage? (Yes! Well…a little. Maybe. I don’t know. We’ll find out?)
Never fear my readers! We will navigate the wild world of Retro together in this blog post and come out the other side more educated designers (Maybe).
Let’s begin with definitions:
retro, adj. : relating to, reviving, or being the styles and especially the fashions of the past : fashionably nostalgic or old-fashioned
vintage, adj.
1 c : of old, recognized, and enduring interest, importance, or quality : CLASSIC, VENERABLE
2 a : marked by an advanced age : dating from the past
Putting that into plain english, Retro refers to a design aestheic which is imitating a past style. Vintage refers to something that is actually from that past time period. Bought some awesome chairs influenced by the the charming Mom ‘n Pop diners of the past but was mass produced in China? Retro. Acquired a chair that actually was FROM the Mom ‘n Pop diner? Vintage.
Clear on that? Alright, moving on.
Now obviously the internet wasn’t around back in the day of the Grease soundtrack and poodle skirts so how can Vintage websites exist? Now, I’m throwing my personal opinion into this a little but I think the style difference has a lot to do with the typefaces. Design elements such as the floral edges and borders and fancy ribbons tend to show up in both design styles (if we can even separate the two).
Mm, quite.
Usually though, I think the design style encompassing both Retro and Vintage is referred to as Retro since you’re still imitating a style either way. Searching for “Vintage Website Design” doesn’t bring up NEARLY as many search results as “Retro Website Design”. This blog post gives a list of sites using “Vintage” typography however I feel that overall the design of the sites are much more Retro.
Now that we’re past the mumbo jumbo and technical terms, let’s dive into some tasty design.
1. Form Follows Function
The golden rule of design. Just because you can design something as Retro doesn’t mean you should. First and foremost, you should be giving the client what they want. This is probably the most important lesson I’ve learnt over the past couple of months. You’re not designing for yourself. You’re designing for a client and an audience. They have the money, they get what they want. It doesn’t matter if you feel like it isn’t your strongest work. If you’re pleasing the client and fulfilling the design brief, the rest will follow.
Ahhhh, I really like this design. It uses the Retro design aesthetic very well and the design overall is very balanced. I’ve noticed that it’s very easy to go overboard on Retro design “bits” but this website does a great job. I also think this website follows the rule “FFF”. Overall, the website gives the feel of the vintage clothing advertisements from back in the day with the classic type and grainy textures.
http://www.theworldwelivein.co.uk/
I’m a sucker for white space and simplicity and this site is no exception. Usually I’m nervous about using giant introductory paragraphs in portfolios but this one actually works really well. The sentence is short, sweet and explains what the site is. Upon scrolling down you can see some samples of the designers work. Everything is easy to navigate and find. The designer did a really great job of bringing in some small retro design elements like the texture in the background and the custom logo badge. So simple, so functional.
http://www.threepennyeditor.com/
I HAD to include this website. The concept is so simple but the overall effect is quite lovely. The website works for the company. I understand what they do and important information is given to me right away. The navigation is easy to get to, it’s not cluttered. Everything is laid out neatly and I can’t stop scrolling up and down the page (so clever). I love when a website comes together like this so effectively. The design flows together seamlessly and the resulting design is effortless. I’m not totally sold on the side scrolling animation under the tagline, but I can live with it because of how good the rest of the site is.
2. Form…Doesn’t Follow Function?
You know I have to include some not so good ones in here. The sites that I have listed aren’t TERRIBLE but I feel that they could have been improved in some ways.
First of all, automatic audio. That’s a huge no-no. Many viewers are already listening to their own tunes when browsing, therefore they don’t need your unnecessary music assaulting their ears. It’s annoying and it slows down load speeds of the web page. I also have a huge gripe with flash websites. I feel that it’s very difficult to make a good flash website and even if the design is great, flash is something that’s disappearing fast. In this site specifically, if you hover near the navigation, a scope or magnifying glass of some sort drops down. I don’t know what this is for. What purpose does it serve? It drops down over the links on the navigation but for no reason. If you think people need help reading the page titles then maybe you should, you know, make them legible.
My biggest problem with this website is that I don’t understand what it’s about. I see the descriptive words on the right side of the page but I actually have to go read a few pages to understand what exactly this company offers me.
http://singularityconcepts.com/
I don’t hate this site as much as the previous one but I do find it a bit overwhelming. It’s not bad, but there are so many things happening that I’m not sure what I should be looking at. The navigation is especially distracting, the different colors and different styles (why does one button completely change?) is way too confusing for the average viewer. Then two of the headings say the same thing (with one being cut off) even though the sections are about different topics. Like I said, it’s not a bad design but I think some things could have been dialed back and some things could have been cleaned up a little.
All in all, I love the retro design boom. When used correctly, retro design can be a very effective way to grab your target audience’s attention. Don’t get carried away by the ribbons and birds, always keep the audience in mind and aim to design something that’s pleasing to the eye rather than overwhelming.
Questions? Comments? Something to add about the retro fad? Let me know.
Design Life 